Thursday, December 01, 2005

Pathos

Seen on the subway: a man, wearing a suit that he clearly bought when he was at least 30 lbs. lighter, carrying an old, worn-out briefcase straining at the seams with documents, holding an pair of cheap geeky glasses that are completely out of date yet entirely without retro irony, weeping silently and openly.

We came up with the idea that he had been unemployed a long time and gained weight during his unemployment, perhaps out of depression - thus the outdated glasses and the too-small suit. Now he's suddenly having some sort of legal trouble - he's getting divorced or being sued or his mortgage is being foreclosed - so he puts on his now-too-small best suit and stuffs all the documents into his worn-out suitcase, and goes off to the lawyer's or to court in one last, desperate attempt to salvage the few remaining vestiges of his old life.